High school student designs Tiny House as senior project

California high school student, Corbin Cook, has a dream of one day becoming an architect. For his senior project, Corbin designed a custom Tiny House, and guess who helped him? None other than Steve Weissmann, President of Tumbleweed!

Interview with high school student Corbin Cook:

Why did you choose to design a Tiny House for your high school senior project?

Corbin: I chose to design a Tiny House for my senior project due to their specific and confined requirements that would give me something structured to work with for my first formal design. Tiny Houses encompass everything in a normal home but shrunk down to something more manageable for a first architectural project.

How did Steve Weissmann, President of Tumbleweed, help you with your project?

Corbin: I got in contact with Steve through his wife, a teacher at my high school. From there, I contacted Steve and we began meeting regularly. He has helped guide me through the process of creating a Tiny House including keeping my design within specifications. Also, he shared his immense knowledge with me, which aided in the creation of my design.

What design aspects did you include in your project?

Corbin: My Tiny House design is modern, using clean exterior siding such as aluminum paneling and corten steel. My design also includes a corrugated aluminum roof and lots of windows in order to give the small structure a more expansive feel. One end of the home is set to be all glass, and to function as a garage door that can open the living area to the outdoors on a warm day. Overall, I wanted to give my Tiny House a clean modern feel, while providing enough glass windows and doors to give it an expansiveness that is hard to create in a tiny space.

What are your plans for the future?

Corbin: In the future, I want to become an architect. I am planning on attending Cal Poly’s five-year bachelor’s architecture program and working in this field when I leave college. Architecture has always been an interest of mine, and I am excited to both study architecture as well as pursue it as a full-time career.

Congrats to high school student, Corbin Cook, on designing a beautiful Tiny House!

Jenna Spesard built a Tiny House RV in 2014 and traveled with it for one year, clocking over 25,000 miles. Today she lives simply in Mt. Hood Tiny House Village and writes about the Tiny House Movement and travel on her blog: “Tiny House Giant Journey.”